Pro Bowler Jerome Mathis injured for start of season

According an article released by the Texans, Pro Bowl kick returner, Jerome Mathis will be getting surgery for a stress fracture of his foot:

“Since Jerome has come back from the Pro Bowl, he has struggled with his ankle,” Kubiak said. “We took some time off, rehabbed it, did everything we could, it was making progress. Jerome had an accident along the way, but he came out to practice. It continued to bother him and we took an extensive look at it last week and unfortunately we found out what it was, a stress fracture.”

Mathis will undergo surgery Friday at Methodist Hospital to repair the venicular bone in his left foot, a small bone near the top of the foot.

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This is just another problem in a series of setbacks for Mathis since being named to the Pro Bowl following a stellar rookie season. He was in a motorcycle accident a few months back as well, though Kubiak and the training staff said that the accident did not play a role in this latest injury. Mathis has completely healed from his injuries from the motorcycle accident.

“It’s something that could fall into the chronic category,” Texans head athletic trainer Kevin Bastin said. “But he might have done it at the Pro Bowl, too. He was running straight ahead in all the offseason stuff and doing fine, but when we started running and cutting and doing other stuff, it wasn’t responding and that prompted us to do a further study of it.”

Mathis will be operated on Friday by team orthopedist Tom Clanton and will then be asked to stay off his foot for about eight weeks, though Bastin said it might be sooner depending on how the foot responds.

Though the article mentions the “vernicular bone,” it is likely from the description of the injury that it is a tarsal navicular stress fracture. Apparently, these injuries are common in track athletes and difficult to diagnose.

If you want to learn more than you ever wanted to know about these injuries, please check out this article.

So what does this mean for the Texans?

1. The article is saying that they are trying out wide receiver Jake Schifino and rookie running back Wali Lundy in the roll of kick returner. Schifino has done a little bit of return work in the past for New England. As the Texans haven’t been shy this off-season about getting new players to create competition and get more experience, it wouldn’t surprise me if they tried out some more players for this role.

2. Coach Kubiak wanted to get Mathis more involved in the offense this year as a wide receiver. Last year, he was limited in that role because he was recovering from a hamstring injury and couldn’t get enough reps in practice. Typically, it is my understanding that a Kubiak offense really doesn’t utilize a #3 receiver that much, so the work he would have received in this role would be more of a developmental/depth situation. That being said, it would have been nice to have that sort of speed option on the field.

3. Joe Marciano, the special teams coach, has coached for the Texans since the beginning of the franchise. His unit has consistently been one of the bright spots on the team. Certainly, he cannot be happy losing the breakaway speed returner he lobbied for and gave him more options. He is likely going to have a lot of new faces in his unit in 2006, and is going to be a busy man auditioning both punt and kick returners.

(Houston Chronicle fun fact interruption: Since 1990, Jerome Mathis is just the third rookie drafted in or after the fourth round to be selected for the Pro Bowl, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The two most recent — Mathis and Tyrone Hughes — were both return specialists coached by Marciano.)

4. Generally, you don’t want to use a designated roster spot for a return guy, but I seem to recall at least in previous seasons, it has been a bit cussin’ ugly when position guys have auditioned for the role.

5. Hopefully the offense will be much better this year so that there won’t be as many kick return opportunities as last year.

I’m sorry to see this happen, and I hope all goes well. You never wanted to be getting a beer or something when Mathis was about to return the ball. One of his returns for a TD happened right in front of where I was sitting, and it just stunned me how much faster he ran than everyone else without looking like he was trying.

6 Responses

Many moons ago Fresno State got into a situation where they needed a return man in a big game. They decided to use one of their vaunted Wide Receivers. The rest is history. His name was Henry Ellard.

I would like to see someone like Moulds or AJ step up and give it a try. It could get real interesting if they were successful. Remember, Kubiak says you hold nothing back, so why not.

Another alternative would be to go out and see if JJ would like to do a little return work for us again. Never, broke one, but he didn’t drop any either. He was always good for good field position and with this ball club that’s what you want. I keep saying this is going to be a special year and possession and good field position mean a whole lot in the NFL.

No way you want Moulds returning kicks. He is too valuable to do a dangerous job like that. No way. He or AJ get season ending injuries and we become dangerously thin at reciever. Schifino etc. should be just fine. Not an option. If you ever played football you know that if your kick returner gets hurt you don’t take the best reciever and throw him in there. Mathis is a fine athlete, he will be missed.

This may not be a big deal. Why would you say that? To begin with there are two return games. One of course is concerned with kickoffs (which is Mathis) and the other with respect to punts. If a team played perfect defense and never allowed the other team to score a field goal or a touchdown you would only have to field 1 kickoff per game. Usually teams punt after a safety.

Last year teams were scoring at will against the Texans and quite frankly I don’t think that will happen this year. Therefore, the kickoff return game may not be as big a factor as last year. The other reason the kickoff return game can be vital is if you have no offense even though you have a good defense. Again this year I think we will be more than adequate offensively. Thus I’m not so certain this is that big a deal.

Would you like to have an excellent kickoff return game? Yes, but it might not be as effective anyway since we simply won’t have that many opportunities to use it.

The real worry should be our punt return game. If this year’s defense is what I think it will be then we had better be ready to field a lot of punts. We have yet to show much with respect to that part of the game and that is another area where PBuc or a WR could make a name for himself. Again perhapes we can’t see the tree for the forest. This is where someone like jj suddenly becomes a real asset. He simply does not drop the ball. Mathis has not shown that he can be a punt returner as of yet. His hands are not good enough. Folks, focus on the punt return game, not the kickoff return game.